The Battle of Dharvel
by Cuthalion97
Summary: Freeing yet another planet results in several separate missions, with the members of Voltron splitting into different teams to complete each objective. . . until, of course, things fall apart.
1. Chapter 1

The Battle of Dharvel

Alarms blared through the halls of the Castle of Lions. Shiro woke with a start and dove out of bed. He was just grabbing for his armor when Allura's voice sounded over the alarms.

"Paladins, report to the bridge. Our alarm was a little . . . premature."

Shiro, as usual, was the first to the bridge, where Allura and Coran were waiting. Coran bounced from consul to consul, apparently trying to dredge up all the information he could on – whatever it was he was researching. Allura was in the process of summoning a wormhole.

Shiro glanced at the sensor display, but saw no sign of Galra. They certainly weren't under attack, so why were the alarms still ringing? Walking to the center consul, he switched them off.

"Thanks, Number One!" hollered Coran, then lowered his voice abruptly as he realized he no longer had to yell to be heard. "Eh – sorry about that."

Shiro started to ask what was wrong, but just then the bridge door opened and Pidge and Hunk entered. Hunk was yawning desperately and trying not to, but  
Pidge stopped just inside the door, looking fully alert. Shiro strongly suspected that she hadn't yet made it to bed.

Before anyone could speak, the door hissed open again and Lance and Keith burst in, vying for position. As Pidge had not managed to get out of the way, Lance accidentally banged into her, waved his arms wildly for balance, and fell against Hunk.

"Lance!" shouted Pidge.

"It was Keith's fault!" protested the blue paladin, folding his arms with a huge frown on his face.

Keith smirked.

Shiro tried very hard not to sigh. Those two – their constant squabbling was getting ridiculous.

"We're all here, Princess," said Pidge. "What's up?"

Coran raised an eyebrow at her. "Remember that coding we worked on yesterday?"

"Yeah, uh – oh. Yeah."

Shiro glanced from one to the other. "What coding, exactly?"

Pidge gave him an apologetic smile. "I wanted to set up a code that would automatically alert us when we got a distress signal, so we'd be ready to act the minute we reached whoever needed help."

"Which," said Coran, twisting his mustache, "would have been great if we'd remembered to add a sort of timer."

"So, uh, I take it we received a distress signal," said Hunk. "The alarm worked, didn't it?"

"Yes," said Allura, glancing over her shoulder at them. "But we won't reach the planet it came from for nearly four vargas."

Lance groaned, fell back against the wall, and slid to a sitting position. "Man, and now I'm too awake to go back to sleep."

"Sorry," said Pidge, removing her helmet and putting on her glasses. "Who called for help, Princess?"

"The king of Dharvel. It's a small planet on the outskirts of the Kiwi system, and it seems –"

"Kiwi as in fruit?" said Hunk.

Allura looked at him, and Hunk grinned sheepishly, bouncing his index fingers together. "I'm hungry."

"– And it seems," she continued, "that a Galran fleet is moving towards them."

Shiro moved closer to the star chart. "But the rest of the system has been under Galra rule for a while. Why are they only now conquering the outermost planet?"

Coran appeared next to him. "Probably because it's so small and has no special  
resources. Dharvel's one of those self-sufficient little places – they don't even trade with the other planets in their system!"

Keith frowned. "So – why are the Galra attacking at all?"

"Probably because they know we're around," said Lance, crossing his arms behind his head. "Maybe they're afraid the Dharvel people will join us."

"Dharvellans, and no," said Allura. "More likely than not the system was just placed under the rule of a new warlord, who doesn't like to see a free planet under his jurisdiction."

Coran scrolled up on his datapad and read for a moment. "You're right, Princess! The original warlord was just transferred, which means the new one is probably one of those aggressvie types."

"That's bad, right?" said Hunk.

"Well – maybe," said Shiro. "If he's aggressive enough, he might just bring his whole fleet with him, which means it'll be a lot easier to take him down permanently."

"And then we could free the whole system instead of just one planet!" said Lance, jumping to his feet and waving his arms. "Yeah!"

"It's possible," admitted Allura. "There are only four planets in all."

"We won't have time to free each one personally," said Coran, consulting his 'ticker' thoughtfully. "As a matter of fact, we'll have just enough time to pop in, free Dharvel and destroy the fleet, and pop out. Kolivan's expecting us at Olkarion."

"Oh, yeah, forgot about that," said Lance.

"Still," said Shiro. "With the fleet gone, the planets should be able to start organizing their resistance. At the very least, they won't have to worry about being bombarded if they decide to revolt."

Allura nodded. "Exactly."

"Until then," Coran added, "you might as well get some rest. You'll want your heads on straight so you can form Voltron!"

"I think by now I could do it in my sleep," said Lance.

"Coran's right," said Keith.

Lance spun on him. "Oh, Coran's right! Well, YOU were on the training deck when the alarms went off!"

"I didn't know we'd have a mission!" Keith snapped, arms stiff at his sides.

"That's enough!" ordered Shiro. "If you can't get along with each other for your own sakes, you need to do it for everyone else's sake. Now, both of you: get some rest. I don't want to catch you anywhere in the castle but your rooms for the next three vargas. Pidge, Hunk, same with you."

The four younger paladins left the bridge, and the door shut behind them. Shiro waited for a moment, then brought up one of the hall monitors. Pidge and Hunk were walking between the other two, and Lance and Keith were studiously ignoring each other.

"Aw, come on, guys!" said Hunk.

Lance glanced at Keith and said, snootily, "I guess maybe we should stop arguing so much."

"Then maybe you should stop jumping on me every time I talk," said Keith.

Pidge opened her mouth to intervene, but Lance talked over her. "All I did was make a perfectly reasonable comment!"

This time, Shiro did sigh.

It turned out that the Galran commander _was_ aggressive. Coran and Pidge compared notes as the lions darted in and out between the battlecruisers, and Coran told them that the entire system's fleet, with the exception of three supercruisers, was currently engaged in the battle.

"We'll start with the ones closest to the planet," Shiro decided. "Hunk, go after the cruisers. Lance, cover him."

"Will do!" The blue and yellow lions veered off, already wreaking havoc among the droid fighters that surrounded them.

"Pidge, cover me. Keith, your lion's the fastest. You take out fighters and stay ready to assist whoever needs it."

"Got it."

The battle, as so many others they had fought in recently, promised to be short. The fleet was large, but nowhere near large enough to pose a real threat to the lions.

"I found those lost supercruisers!" Coran called suddenly.

"What does that mean?" grunted Shiro, who was busy keeping his lion steady as Black's jawblade sliced through one of the five remaining cruisers.

Allura's voice came over the comms. "Scans show that three supercruisers have already landed!"

"We've gotta get down there," said Keith, pulling his lion into an intricate maneuver that decommissioned six fighters.

"Uh, yeah, no kidding," Hunk replied. "Three supercruisers'll hold a lot of droids."

"The Galra are moving towards the capital already!" said Coran. "You'll have to hurry if you want to fight them without having to keep the civilians out of the way!"

Shiro banked right, heading for the planet. "We'll have to split up. Lance, Keith, Pidge – get rid of those remaining ships. Hunk, you and I will keep the Galra busy until the others can join us."

As they approached the planet surface, Hunk charged up Yellow's special armor. Shiro wondered if he was planning to plow through the droids, but Hunk literally smashed his lion into the hull of the nearest supercruiser.

"This should keep them from escaping," he said in a pleased voice. "Least for now, anyway. I mean, technically they could still take off, but they'd have to rerout their systems around the damaged area unless they wanted an explosion. Maybe I should make a few more holes, just to make sure?"

"Good idea, Hunk." Shiro targeted a nearby squadron of droids and fired short blasts at them, keeping a sharp eye out for any nearby natives as he did so, but there didn't seem to be any around. He hoped Allura had been able to warn them in time – although he supposed that having supercruisers land just outside town would be warning enough for just about anyone.

Pidge let out a yell that crackled in his helmet, then broke off with an "Oof!"

"Pidge?" he called.

"I'm – good. Ow. Just got slammed into another ship by this . . . really big . . . laser beam. OW."

"Take it easy," he cautioned. "You cover Keith and Lance. Let their lions deal with the bigger ships."

Lance let out a whoop. "Last cruiser, here we come! Be with you in two ticks, Shiro!"

"Good. We took out the remaining droids here, but it looks like a lot of them made it into the city. I don't want to destroy the cruisers unless I have to – an explosion like that would kill a lot of people."

"They're all disabled," Hunk reported. "Should we leave our lions here and board the cruisers? Make sure there's no one aboard?"

"We'll wait for the others first. Allura?"

"There are definitely Galra still aboard, but your primary concern needs to be the city and its inhabitants. Get to the castle and keep the royal family safe. If the Galran commander captures them, he'll use them as leverage to get the Dharvellans to surrender."

Coran piped in. "Sending you the city schematics now! You'll have to go on foot to catch the Galra by surprise."

A map popped up on Shiro's display, and he studied it for a moment, then transferred it to his wrist consul. The green, red, and blue lions landed beside him just then, and Hunk followed a moment after.

"I hope we're not splitting up for this next part," said Hunk. "My bayard's great, but not in a town . . ."

"We'll stay together, don't worry," Shiro replied, exiting his lion.

"I've warned the citizens to stay inside," Allura told them. "That should make your job easier."

"Thanks," said Shiro. "That'll help a lot."

He surveyed his teammates for a moment. Lance had his sniper gun out and was bouncing from foot to foot, eager to start. Hunk glanced around uncertainly, his own bayard braced against his chestplate. Keith stood perfectly still, his sword stiff in his hand, which made him look rather like a statue, and Pidge was pressing a hand to her head.

"You okay, Pidge?"

"I'll be fine. That last hit jostled me around a lot."

He hesitated, wondering whether he should send her back, and she snapped to attention, summoning her bayard. "It's just a headache, Shiro! I'm fine!"

He nodded, thinking to himself amusedly that she had switched from 'I'll be fine' to 'I'm fine' the moment it looked like she might be sent back. She looked all right, though, and they might need everyone to get through to the castle.

"Hunk, you and Pidge stay in back. We'll keep you guys out of the fight as much as possible."

Hunk looked regretfully at his large gun and nodded.

"Feel free to jump in if we need it, though. Pidge, keep an eye out for anyone behind us."

She brought up her wrist consul and beeped away for a minute. "Okay, my suit's sensors are all focused behind us."

He raised an eyebrow – he hadn't even thought that suit's sensors might be directional. Trust Pidge to know that.

"I'll lead us in. Keith, Lance, stay up front."

Keith immediately moved to Shiro's side, and Lance stayed just behind him and to the right, his gun aiming at the sky for safety. From here, Keith, positioned between the other two paladins, could easily take out nearby enemies threatening either Shiro or Lance, and Lance, in turn, could take out the more distant ones before they reached the group.

Shiro couldn't help himself. "How is it that you guys work so flawlessly together when we're on a mission, and can't get along at all when we're not?"

There was a ringing silence for a few ticks as they moved through the empty streets. Shiro distinctly heard the princess chuckling to herself at his question.

Predictably, no one actually answered him. Maybe they didn't have an answer at all . . .

"Where are all the droids?" Lance asked instead.

"Hold on a tick," Coran said. "It looks – yes! A good deal of them have congregated in the marketplace, about three spinvill's to your right."

"Uh," said Hunk. "Does anyone know what a spinvill is?"

"No," said Keith.

"I got this," said Pidge, pulling up her consul. "Shiro, send me your map."

He did so, and she muttered to herself, running various calculations. Personally, Shiro had already decided that the large square marked on the map was the marketplace – they seemed to be pretty much the same the universe over – but better safe than sorry.

"You're going to have to detour and take them out," said Allura. "If the Galran warlord decides to slaughter the civilians, he has his droids ready, right in the middle of the city."

"Use the castle," said Lance. "The marketplace is wide open, right?"

"Excellent idea, Lance!" she exclaimed. "Coran, ready the small lasers and prepare to attack. We're entering the atmosphere."

"A spinvill," said Pidge, shutting down her consul, "is about the same as a quarter of a mile. And we're about half a mi – I mean, two spinvill's away from the castle right now."

"Good job," said Shiro. "All right, everyone, let's get over there."


	2. Chapter 2

Exactly two officers and twelve droids later, the paladins stopped before a large, pale-pink building that stood directly in the middle of the city. The houses all around them were perfectly silent, but Shiro still got that crawling feeling on the back of his neck that meant they were being watched.

Not that he could blame the Dharvellans for being curious, but it still made him feel more on edge than ever.

"Wow," said Hunk. "That looks like it was made out of a single stone."

"An asteroid, actually," Coran said. "That castle has been there since the planet was first settled, almost eight thousand years ago."

Shiro motioned Lance forward and pointed to a nearby pillar. "I take it that the Galra are already inside?"

Lance darted to his assigned position as Coran answered. "You're at the back of the castle – they entered through the front. A whole lot of Galra are showing up on my scanners, but they're just standing there. Something must have stopped them."

"Maybe they're sightseeing," offered Lance from behind the pillar.

"It is possible, but not likely," remarked Coran, apparently not recognizing the blue paladin's statement for a joke.

"In we go," said Shiro. "Lance! Cover us."

He sprinted into the open, Keith half a step behind him, Pidge and Hunk trailing a bit. Not a soldier in sight . . . So far, so good.

The moment the four of them reached the shelter of a large archway opening onto the castle's courtyard, Lance rushed to join them and they all peered inside.

"No one here. Allura, where do we go from here?"

"Just head straight in. The king is in the main room. He's got most of his soldiers setting traps for the Galra, so you should have a few moments."

"Right."

The king of Dharvel, who stood waiting to greet them, reminded Shiro of no one so much as Sam Holt. He knew Pidge had seen the resemblance, too, because she stopped with a little gasp. The king was short and slight, with a wispy beard and longish hair. He wore cerulean robes and a crown, and was loading his gun with practiced ease.

At least they wouldn't be protecting an inexperienced ruler.

"Thank you for coming so quickly, paladins," he said. "I am King Kiwan. Your princess tells me the plan is for you to protect us in order to keep the Galra from using us as hostages."

"Yes," said Shiro. "Wait – 'us'?"

"My family," said Kiwan, glancing over his shoulder. "My brother and his family are already in safe houses, as are my wife's parents. But my wife and child and I will require your assistance. There is an underground fortress at the far edge of this city. . ."

"I don't think we can get there," said Pidge, bringing up the map again. "With the streets empty, we'll show up the minute the Galra decide to scan. We were probably seen coming here as it is."

"Well, we know reinforcements aren't arriving from outside the planet," said the king, turning on a communicator. "Princess?"

Allura's bushy hair swung behind her as she turned to face her camera. "It would be best if you didn't leave the castle. Hundreds of droids just left the supercruisers and are spreading through the streets."

"Oh, man!" Hunk sighed. "I knew we should have taken them out while we had the chance!"

"Your Majesty," said Shiro, turning back to the king. "What is the most easily defensible room in this castle?"

"The throne room. But – Black Paladin, while my wife and I are more than willing to help you resist the Galra, I ask that you send two of your paladins with my daughter. The warlord wants us, but he might not know we have a child."

Shiro considered. He didn't want to split up – some paladins dodging around the castle, others barricaded in a room, both groups incapable of going to the other's assistance. Still . . . if the Galra managed to break in, having a backup team would be useful. Besides, seeing as how both the king and the queen wanted to fight the Galra, he'd be having a hard enough time protecting them without having to worry about a child.

In the end, it would probably be safer all around.

"Fine," he said.

Kiwan gave him a grateful nod and opened a nearby door. "I'll get them."

As soon as he vanished, Shiro turned and regarded the others thoughtfully.

"Hunk, I'll definitely need your bayard's firepower in the throne room," he said, placing a hand on the yellow paladin's shoulder.

Hunk grinned. "Good. I haven't gotten any droids yet today – well, except for the ones flying those ships . . ." He trailed off, counting on his fingers.

"I'm hoping we can keep the Galra outside the room," Shiro continued, "But if we don't, I'll need someone with a melee weapon."

Keith looked like he was about to volunteer, but just then the king came back in accompanied by a slender woman with long, flowing blue hair.

"My wife, Tira." Kiwan introduced her hurriedly, and she nodded. Despite her sweeping skirts and draped sleeves, Tira was holding a long spear with crackling light sparking on its tip. It looked as though it were capable of inflicting a very powerful shock indeed.

"Green Paladin," said Tira. "Your princess has told me that you are exceptionally good at working with technology. I have the keeping of the castle's passwords and codes."

She held out a small memory chip. "I am trusting you not to let this fall into enemy hands. With this, you will be able to access every system in the entire castle from the main database."

"Where's the database, exactly?" asked Pidge, taking the memory chip as though it were more valuable than gold. Shiro could practically _hear_ the plans clicking behind her large brown eyes.

"In the throne room."

"That settles that question," said Lance. "Looks like I'm stuck with Keith."

"More like _I'm_ stuck with _you_." Keith's retort was quiet, but Shiro still heard it, and he made sure to give them both a very pointed look.

"My general has our child," said Kiwan, waving someone from the next room.

An immense Dharvellan, almost the size of a Galra, joined them, a tiny bundle wrapped in his arms.

Lance almost squawked. "A baby?!"

He sounded positively delighted.

Keith, on the other hand, blinked once or twice and said nothing.

If the situation hadn't been so tense, his expression might have made Shiro laugh. As it was, he was able to control his instinctive smile with comparative ease.

The general carefully transferred the tiny pink bundle to Lance's arms, rather than Keith's; this was mostly because Lance was practically hopping up and down, hands outstretched, and Keith was standing motionless, his mouth ever so slightly open. Once the baby was safely settled against Lance's blue-and-white armor, the general left without a word.

"Hurry, paladins!" cried Allura. "The Galra have only one more hallway to get down before they reach the throne room."

King Kiwan raised his gun. "This way!"

The queen followed him, her skirts billowing, and Shiro, Pidge, and Hunk fell into step behind them. Shiro glanced over his shoulder to see Keith staring after him with a mildly shellshocked expression, while Lance cooed at the baby princess in the background.

"Keith, Lance," he said, even as he left the room. "Keep to the small, out-of-the-way rooms. Stay in constant touch with all of us." Then, more to Keith than to Lance, he added, "You'll be fine."

"Aww, look at her, Keith! She's so _tiny_!"

"Yeah," said Keith, sparing the baby half a glance as he opened a door leading to an outer hall. "You'd better stay behind me. I'll handle any fighting."

The blue bayard, which had been left on the floor, vanished into Lance's armor with a flash as he held one hand over it. "You're right," he said, wrapping both arms protectively around the baby and touching her cheek with his nose. "We don't want to scare you with loud shots, do we, little girl?"

"That's – not what I meant . . ." Keith gave up.

They traveled down an emptily echoing hallway and slipped through a small door into another vacant room. Keith knew they needed to find a place where they would not be discovered, but had no idea where that would be.

"Coran," he muttered. "Do you see any Galra near our position?"

"None so far, Number Four. I suggest you head upstairs, though. A few scouts are heading right past the throne room."

"Stairs – right."

Keith was halfway to the opposite door when a gasp from Lance made him swing around.

Lance was staring down at the baby, frowning.

"What's wrong?" Keith demanded.

"They didn't tell us her name!"

Keith blinked. "Lance, that's not importa–"

"It is _so_ important! But yeah, keep moving. I'll think up one as we go."

Keith had no idea why Lance would bother giving the baby a name – she had one already, didn't she? – but decided not to argue about it. 

Pidge scrunched herself up behind the main database, plugging in the queen's memory chip and pulling up her wrist consul simultaneously. Hunk stood next to her, watching with interest. Shiro glanced around the room, noting where the doors were and how many pillars could be easily used for cover.

Kiwan and Tira stood directly in front of their thrones, as though they were conducting a diplomatic function, with the Galra as their guests.

Shiro stepped over to them. "Don't you think it would be better to take cover immediately? They'll break down the door the minute they get here."

Queen Tira hesitated. "An ambush . . .? It wouldn't be honorable."

The king nodded, one hand on his wife's arm. "We Dharvellans have always fought in the open."

"You'll be fighting in the open soon enough," Shiro told them. "And believe me when I say that the Galra do not concern themselves with fighting honorably."

"Do two wrongs make a right?" asked Kiwan.

"Look," said Shiro, casting a quick glance at the bolted door. "All I want you to do is to stand behind those pillars. If you stay here, you'll be shot down almost immediately."

"Yeah," Pidge piped up from where she was working. "And besides, we're not in a duel or something. They're just a bunch of mindless droids."

Hunk joined in. "Well, droids and maybe a Galra or two. But you can wait until they shoot at you to shoot back if you want. I mean, I'd rather shoot them before they could shoot me because they're going to anyway, but . . ."

The queen's eyes narrowed for a moment, and then she turned to Shiro and said, "Very well. Where do you want us?"

He positioned her behind a pillar on one side of the door, and Kiwan on the opposite side. After checking on Pidge once more, he himself stood to one side, in plain view of the door, and summoned his shield.

"Allura? What are the Galra doing?"

"Standing directly outside the door. I assume they are planting –"

There was a huge explosion, and pieces of stone whizzed through the air.

"– explosives," finished Allura.

Shiro smirked a little, activating his prosthetic hand and leaping forward.

Through the haze of dust and smoke surrounding him, he noticed Kiwan firing, not erratically or fast, but calmly, taking deliberate aim before each shot. It seemed that this people, peaceful as their life had been so far, were nonetheless well trained in the arts of defense.

Tira did not engage the droids head-on; instead, she stayed in the shadows, waiting. Every time a droid got close, she moved with the speed of a snake, slammed her crackling spear into its face or torso with her blue hair whipping around her face, then dodged back into hiding.

Shiro, moving with the precision that always served him so well, worked his way towards Pidge, ducking and slicing as he went. "Allura, how many enemies are we looking at?"

"At least a hundred," she answered immediately. "A good number of them are moving around the throne room and spreading through the ground floor and there are more on their way."  
"Can you do anything from your end?"  
"We're hovering above the city, taking out any large groups that we can safely target," she said. "They haven't gone near the lions, but I'm afraid there's nothing more we can do at the moment."

"No, it's fine," he said. "Pidge?"

She raised a hand imperatively. "I'm about to make a disaster out of the castle," she said.  
Shiro wasn't sure whether or not her gleeful tone was cause for concern or not, but for the moment, he went back to blocking lasers and fighting droids. Hunk fired short bursts through the open doorway, discouraging the enemy's advance.

"Okay, Shiro," said Pidge in clipped tones. "Here's the plan . . ."


	3. Chapter 3

Keith stood waiting at the top of the stairs for Lance to catch up, which was more than a little unusual. Lance usually spent his time trying to beat Keith to whatever their current goal was, but this time he seemed more than satisfied to trail behind.

"Keith!" Pidge's voice came through his helmet. "Where are you and Lance?"

"We just went up a flight of stairs at the back of the castle."

"Good. Stay up there. I'm going to make use of the principle of conduction."

Keith gave Lance a questioning look, but the blue paladin only shrugged elaborately. "Are you looking at me? I have, like, no idea what she's talking about."

"Conduction, Lance!" she said. "One of the most fundamental facts about electricity!"

"Rosie," said Lance. "How's that, Keith?"

There was a long moment of crackling silence, and then Hunk said, "Uh, Lance, you okay back there?"

"Keith," said Pidge over the sound of blasters, "Did he hit his head?"

Shiro laughed. "Lance . . . are you trying to give the baby a name?"

"Oh my gosh," chortled Pidge. "I – Hunk, behind you!"

Apparently the battle in the throne room had intensified, for there were no further comments from the three other paladins. Keith opened yet another door leading into yet another empty room (where was everybody, anyway?) and they settled down against the far wall, where both doors were clearly visible to them.

"Why 'Rosie'?" asked Keith, shifting his sword from hand to hand.

Lance settled the baby more comfortably in his arms. "Look at her hair."

Keith leaned over cautiously, propping himself on both hands. The baby's hair, which was much more plentiful than that on a human baby's head, was a soft, pale pink.

"Oh," he said.

"Yeah, and her cheeks are rosy too."

Keith supposed they were – honestly, he thought she looked a little feverish, but then again he hadn't had much – any – experience with babies. Maybe they always looked like that.

"She's . . . tiny," he said after a moment's observation.

Silence.

He looked up to see Lance watching him, eyes narrowed, one eyebrow raised ridiculously high.

"What?"

Lance cleared his throat. "Babies are always tiny."

Keith didn't know what to say to that one, so he shrugged.

A moment later, Lance grinned mischievously. "Want to hold her?"

Keith jerked back, getting to his feet with unusual speed. "No! I mean . . . I wouldn't . . . know how to . . . No."

He checked out both doors. Nothing in sight, although some sort of disturbance was going on downstairs. Maybe he should check it out –

"Lance, Keith," Allura's voice cut into his thoughts. "A squadron of droids is heading up the stairs."

"Hunk!" called Pidge. "I need you to get out the door and fire a line of shots along the opposite wall, exactly four feet from the ground."

Hunk jolted upwards, lifting a hapless droid on the end of his bayard. "Got it."

"Pidge kept talking. "Shiro, I'll need the queen's spear."

The black paladin rushed over to Tira and caught her arm. "I'll need to borrow your spear for this," he said. "Get behind the throne."

For perhaps half a second she looked as though she wanted to protest, but then she pressed her lips together, nodded, and handed him the spear. Shiro brought it to Pidge, who already had her bayard out. She waited until, with a sudden crash, a flood of water burst through the door and spread out across the entire room.

Hunk splashed back into view. "The whole castle's gonna be flooded – is that what you wanted?"

"Not the whole castle, Hunk. Just this floor." Again she gave that impish grin, and motioned for them to follow her.

The three paladins waded over to the raised dais that held the thrones and climbed onto it. Kiwan and Tira were already there. The king was still occasionally firing, but only at the door, as no droids were currently inside the room.

"Okay. This'll be good," said Pidge, holding up the spear. "Shiro? Can you throw this all the way out of the room?"

He flexed his prosthetic fingers and gave her a small smile.

"Good." She handed him the spear, which was crackling furiously. Apparently Pidge had figured out how to turn the electricity to its highest setting. "And I'll use my bayard. Ready . . . NOW!"

Shiro leaned back as though he were throwing a javelin and hurled the spear with all his might even as Pidge fired her bayard. Both soared out of the room and landed in the water, right in the midst of a group of oncoming droids.

Electricity arced and crackled. Pidge did not bother watching it, instead studying a read-out on her wrist consul.

"Awesome, Hunk!" she yelled suddenly, spinning in place like a top. "That water pipe flooded the entire ground floor –!"

Hunk high-fived her. "– and the Galra soldiers are down fifty droids, oh man!"

Pidge checked her read-out. "Forty-seven."

"Close enough."

"Great job, guys," said Shiro with a smile. "Allura, what does it look like down here?"

Static blocked her voice for a moment and then cleared. " . . . no droids on your level, but at least twenty have made it to the second floor. The castle is surrounded. We're trying – to keep them – busy . . ."

As she broke off, Coran spoke. "Several hundred troops have already made it to the outer courtyard. I could try using the ship's lasers, but it's pretty risky; I'd most likely end up hitting the castle."

Kiwan stepped forward, raising his communicator. "Then we'll evacuate the castle. Any of my remaining troops have already withdrawn."

"Our lasers are powerful," said Allura. "Your castle might be severely damaged."

"Don't worry about that," he said. "Buildings can be replaced, but lives cannot."

"Thank you," said Allura simply.

"All right." Shiro jetpacked through the air to retrieve Queen Tira's spear and returned it to her. "Pidge, find us the quickest route out. Lance? Keith? Did you hear all that?"

"The whole evacuation thing?" Lance's voice answered. "Yeah. There are a LOT of droids out there. We're gonna need the lions."

"You'd better go on without us." Keith spoke next. "We'll keep the princess safe here until one of you gets back."

"Thank you so much," said Tira, clasping her hands in a very Allura-like manner. "I know it's not an easy task we've given you. . ."

"Easy enough for me," Lance grinned. "I just get to hold Rosie here, and Keith's the one doing all the fighting."

As the water was now safe to walk through, the three paladins led the way towards the door. The queen splashed after them, still talking.

"What do you mean, Rosie? Her name is Lira!"

There was a long pause; then Lance spoke again, his voice dripping with doubt. " . . . Lira?"

Pidge snorted with laughter. "I'm sure she knows what she named her own baby, Lance."

"Well, yeah, but –"

"Quiet!" hissed Keith. "Shiro, I've got droids incoming. Nothing we can't handle yet, but –"

"We'll be back here as fast as we can," Shiro said reassuringly. "Just hold them off and keep moving."

"Okay."

"Yeah, we got this, leader-man!" said Lance.

"And keep your comms open," Shiro reminded them needlessly.

It sounded, briefly, as though they both laughed a little before replying together, "Yes, Shiro."

Lance adjusted Rosie's blanket and smoothed her hair back. She was still asleep, one tiny thumb resting in her mouth. At the opposite end of the room, Keith had his sword and shield ready and was crouched to one side of the door.

"Psst, Keith!" hissed Lance.

"What?"

"Try not to make too much noise. She's sleeping."

Keith gaped disbelievingly, but before he could say anything, the door crashed open. Lance brought up his shield and rested it directly over Rosie, angling it towards the incoming lasers.

As the red paladin slashed into the nearest droid, Lance sprinted across the room to get out of the line of fire. Keith moved as fast as he could, but some of the droids still got off a few shots. Lance, unprotected by his shield, staggered forward and nearly hit the wall as a stray blaster bolt slammed into his back, just below his armor.

"Quiznak!" he shouted. "Keith –"

Keith leapt back and kicked the door shut on the final droid, crushing its metallic arm. "You okay?"

"Uh – I'm good, yeah." He straightened painfully, his shield vanishing. "I might be a little slow."

He limped forward, his injury jolting with every step. "Okay, a lot slow. Still fast enough to keep up with you, though."

"I don't think so," said Keith, sounding concerned.

Lance sighed. "I was _joking_ . . . never mind."

"Can you make it to the next room?"

Before the blue paladin could answer, there was a sudden explosion, and the door burst inward. Keith, standing only a few feet away, was sent flying through the air to slam into the opposite wall. Lance shifted the baby to one arm, summoned his bayard, and fired into the thick smoke filling the doorway, bracing the gun against his side with one elbow.  
"Hey!" he yelled over his shoulder. "I really hope you're conscious, 'cause I could use the help!"

As if in answer, Keith's knife streaked through the air and thudded into a droid, causing it to topple back into the others. Keith himself took rather longer to appear, and when he did, he was stumbling, his usual coordination gone. He still cut through the surrounding enemies, but his movements were clumsy and ill-timed.

He stabbed the last droid through the chest, almost falling to his knees as he did so, and turned to face Lance, who grinned, giving him a thumbs-up.

Keith responded with a slight smirk. "Let's get out of here."

"Yep, great idea." Lance took a step forward and gritted his teeth. "Stupid droids."

Moving cautiously, they made their way down the main hallway and towards an immense window that faced the back courtyard. Lance leaned one shoulder against the wall, propping Rosie in the crook of his elbow, and peered out. There was no sign of the lions, as of yet, but there _were_ about six zillion droids.

"Yay."

Keith looked over at him. "What?"

Lance waved his free hand carelessly. "Droids. Lots of 'em."

"Oh. Right."

A clanking noise from behind them made them turn swiftly. Two droids stood, apparently talking to each other, at the far end of the hall. They hadn't spotted the paladins yet, but when they did –

Keith's eyes narrowed, and he dropped into that half-crouch he always did right before he charged. Lance knew that he'd never have time to reach them before they gave the alarm, so he reached out and grabbed Keith's elbow.

When the red paladin straightened, looking startled, Lance used both hands to forcefully transfer the baby to Keith's free arm. Without a second's hesitation, Lance brought his gun up and dispatched the droids with two quick shots.

The pink bundle stirred, and a distressed wail issued from it. Keith froze where he was, eyes wide, and stared from the baby to Lance with a completely clueless expression.  
Lance considered helping for a moment, but then decided that he was simply enjoying this far too much. Besides, he did need to check in with Shiro.

"Shiro? What's your ETA?"

"Give me two minutes and I'll pick you guys up. Where are you right now?"

"A large window in the second floor overlooking the back courtyard."

"Okay. Be right there."

Keith, in the meantime, was staring down at the crying baby again. Her tiny fists waved as she let out another screeching wail. Keith winced. Maybe she was cold . . . or scared. Moving slowly, he leaned his sword against the wall and readjusted Rosie's – Lira's – blanket with a gloved hand, tucking it in around her.

His armor was certainly not the most comfortable thing for a baby to lean against, but he didn't know what he could do about that. She quieted down after a minute, hiccuping a little as she stopped crying, and he touched her soft cheek ever so carefully. One of her hands latched onto his finger, and she settled down with a contented gurgle, apparently falling back asleep.

Keith wasn't sure whether he should attempt to free his finger or not. She was no longer crying, which was good, but he'd need at least one hand free in another minute or so. Glancing up at Lance, he realized that the blue paladin was watching him, an extremely smug, self-satisfied smile plastered across his face.

"Isn't she _cute_?" he said.

Keith glared.

"Okay, guys, hop in!" called Shiro's voice, and they looked up to see Black's head filling the window. Lasers peppered her armor and spattered the stones all around as she opened her mouth.

Lance raised his gun and blasted the window to fragments, and Keith turned away, shielding Rosie – no, Lira – from the exploding plastic bits.

"Hurry!" called Shiro. "Black's really taking a beating. Lance, you okay?"

"Oh yep, totally. . . _not_ ," he ended with a grunt as he practically fell from the windowsill into Black's mouth. Getting to his knees, he held out his arms for the baby, and Keith carefully handed her across, then climbed to the sill.

At that moment, a stray laser hit the stones beneath his feet, turning it to dust, and he lurched forward, slipping off and barely catching the edge of Black's lower jaw by his fingertips –

– Which meant that he was hanging in full view of the droids and their stupid purple lasers. "Shiro," he grunted, "now would be a great time to fly outta here."

Lance's right hand appeared over the edge and locked onto Keith's wrist in a painfully tight grip. As Shiro tilted his lion's head upward, shielding the red paladin with Black's armored body, Lance pulled at Keith's arm until he was able to clamber into her mouth.  
Immediately she shut it and zoomed off.

As Keith slumped to the floor, Lance, who still held the baby in one arm, detached his fingers from around Keith's wrist, wincing dramatically the while.

"Y'know, Mullet, maybe you should practice getting in and out of lions more often," he grumbled. "I think you dislocated my shoulder."

" _I_ dislocated _your_ shoulder?" Keith shot back, rubbing his upper arm.

The consecutive glaring contest lasted only a few seconds before Keith shrugged and said, "Still, thanks."

"Yeah, no problem."

"Pidge? A little help?" Hunk turned his lion, which was much less agile on the ground than in the air, and stomped on the nearest droid. He was surrounded and under a constant barrage of shots, which were causing his readouts to flicker and buzz.

"Gotcha covered!"

He looked up to see the smaller lion loping towards him, casually crushing nearby droids right and left as Pidge fired short bursts into the more distant ranks.

King Kiwan stood behind Hunk, both hands gripping the back of his chair as Yellow lurched and lunged. "This lion is – a powerful – weapon," he observed, the air jolting from his lungs each time Yellow hit the ground.

"Yeah," agreed Hunk shortly, preoccupied with running droids over.

"I'm heading your way," Shiro reported. "Prepare to fall back to the castle."

Coran's face appeared on the screen. He was tugging enthusiastically at his orange mustache with one hand and typing rapidly with the other. "We're heading out of the atmosphere now."

"Once we've dropped off our passengers, we'll head back," said Shiro as Black flew into view. "Lance, Keith, I'll set you down near your lions right now."

Queen Tira cut in on Green's video feed. "Do you have Lira? Is she safe?"

"She's right here," said Lance cheerfully. "Sound asleep, despite Keith's noisily destroying droids."

"Your gun's louder," Keith replied without any real annoyance in his voice.

"Well, yeah, but –"

Pidge sighed loudly. "Okay, guys, we get it. Seriously."


	4. Chapter 4

Lance gave Rosie one final hug and started to climb to his feet, in order to bring her to Shiro.

Keith stopped him. "I'll take her. You're already moving more than you should."

The blue paladin's mouth dropped open in shock. "Whaaaat? I'm one hundred percent fine! I'm better than fine! I'm –"

"You were shot in the back," said Keith matter-of-factly. "And it'll be a while yet before we're done with this battle."

Without waiting for further arguments, he picked up the baby – still holding her as though she were made of glass – and headed into the cockpit, leaving Lance grumpily folding his arms behind him.  
Shiro turned as he entered. "Hey."

"I hope you can fly with one hand," the red paladin told him, holding the pink bundle out to him.  
Shiro's eyebrows jumped, and he said, "Oh . . . Yeah."

Keeping his prosthetic hand on the controls, he took her, his expression worried. His gaze switched constantly between the battle before him and the baby sleeping in the crook of his elbow. "Keith, you and Lance get ready. I'll have to drop you off fast."

"Just tell us when," said Keith with a crooked grin, already leaving the cockpit.

Pidge gritted her teeth, growling in annoyance as her target backed up directly against a house. She _really_ hated fighting in close quarters like this – it severely inhibited her ability to just _destroy the freaking enemy._

To make matters worse, the queen, who stood just behind her, was more than a little distracting. She kept gasping and clutching at Pidge's seat and pointing at incoming enemies. And Pidge had insisted that Hunk take the king in Yellow because she didn't want to be distracted by how much Kiwan looked like her father.

Honestly, Tira might actually be worse. . . A sudden blow jolted Green sideways, and Pidge checked her left-hand monitor. A Galra stood just inside a doorway, reloading a rocket launcher.  
"Okay, that's it," she growled. She flew into the air, and Green sent a twisting mass of vines into the doorway, which grew and tangled around the officer.

Pidge was just allowing herself a satisfied smirk when Shiro said, "Pidge, Hunk, get to the castle."  
 _Finally_ , thought Pidge uncharitably as the queen gave a small shriek. How could Queen Tira have fought so fearlessly in the throne room and yet be so scared right now?  
Maybe she was just a bad passenger.

Of course, if Pidge were being fair, she herself had reacted pretty badly the first time Lance flew the blue lion, so . . . yeah. Bad Passenger Syndrome. Maybe the Alteans had some sort of antidote to it that she could keep in her lion, just in case she ended up performing this kind of mission often.  
The queen gasped again. "Look out!"

"Yeah, yeah, I see him," muttered Pidge.

Tira shut her mouth abruptly. Pidge hoped she wasn't too offended, but, quite honestly, she was more concerned about keeping the queen alive than keeping her happy. Plowing her way through the last two droids she fired her thrusters and left the atmosphere.

Moments later, she gained the main hangar of the Castle of Lions and landed smoothly, Black and Yellow on either side of her. Without waiting for Pidge to lower the ramp all the way, Queen Tira rushed into the hangar and snatched her baby from a very surprised Shiro's arms. Kiwan was already on his communicator, speaking to Allura about something, and then Coran waved from the doorway, shouting, "This way, your Majesties!"

They rushed out after him, the king pausing long enough to call, "Our thanks, paladins!"

"Uh. . . that was fast," said Hunk.

Shiro shrugged slightly. "Probably just as well. We need to get back there and finish this battle.

Red and Blue darted through the air, just above roof-level. Most of their pilots' time and energy was being spent on _not_ destroying the houses, and the fight against the Galra was going nowhere.

"This," said Lance eloquently, "is stupid."

Keith only response was to growl as his lion jinked and wove through the streets, making hairpin turns that threatened at every minute to send him through a house or five.

"Guys, let's regroup at the supercruisers." Shiro's voice came over their comms. "We need to come up with a new plan."

Lance zoomed upward, finally allowing his death-grip on the controls to relax slightly. "Plan? I've got a plan. Can we form Voltron and just kind of walk through the town?"

"Oh, man, that would be _awesome_ ," Hunk said.

Allura cut in. "No! It's too dangerous for the citizens."

Lance slumped dramatically in his seat, then straightened as his back injury made its presence known. Again. "Yeah, let's not do that."

"We've gotta get those cruisers taken out," said Keith.

The five lions landed, all facing the foremost supercruiser, which had landed, along with the other two, in a huge series of fields. Lance noticed that while the fields had most likely contained crops before the attack, none of them held any now. Sheesh, no wonder Allura was so worried about them damaging the town. The poor Dharvellans would have a hard enough time regrouping without having to deal with any 'friendly fire'.

"Blowing up these ships is out of the question . . ." said Pidge. "Maybe we could just target their critical systems?"

Hunk popped up on her screen. "Uh, I was just scanning the engines, and destroying them down here would be a really bad idea. The exploding fuel would cause massive fires."

"Okay, so maybe we won't use that idea," she said, adjusting her glasses.

"Hang on," said Lance. "Can't I just target the fires with Blue's ice beam?"

"Yeah, but the fire would spread too quickly for you to stop it," Hunk said apologetically. "Those engines might just explode in space, but down here any explosions will be made tons bigger because of the oxygen."

"Oh, right."

"Then our only choice is to shut them down from the inside," said Shiro.

"All three of them?" said Hunk in a somewhat smaller voice. Shiro glanced at him, cocking an eyebrow, and Hunk wilted. "Yeah, okay."

"Paladins, whatever you're going to do, hurry," said Allura. "The Galra warlord is in the city – we just caught part of his transmission."

Coran's face moved directly in front of the camera, cutting Allura off. "He's organizing his troops!" he said, and bounced off-screen.

Allura's gaze slid to the side as he vanished, and then she cleared her throat. "Kiwan and Tira are sending orders to the remnants of their army. They'll help fight against the droids. One of you will need to go after the warlord personally, though."

"We'll get on it," said Shiro. "Anything we should know about him?"

Coran reappeared. "Apart from his name, you mean?"

Keith let out an impatient sigh. "What _is_ his name?"

"Commander Ryltax, and he's got quite the record!" He scanned down a datapad, mumbling to himself: "Six hundred and twelve victorious battles . . . just transferred from Galra high command . . . various Druidic upgrades . . . has a bit of a reputation for being tricky . . . oh, look, this is interesting!"

"Yeah, because the rest of it somehow wasn't?" said Pidge.

"Now, now! It seems that Ryltax has the unusual habit of personally going after the enemy commander in every battle he fights in!"

"And he can't get up to the castle," said Shiro.

"Waitwaitwait," said Lance, frowning suddenly. "That means he'll come after you, Shiro!"

"Right you are," said Coran, looking slightly less cheerful. "So, um, deal with him carefully. He's pretty dangerous!"

"Thanks," said Shiro heavily. "I'll go after Ryltax."

"I'll go with you," said Lance.

"Fine. The rest of you need to get to the bridge of each cruiser and destroy the systems controls."

"Yeah!" cheered Pidge. "Good old-fashioned sabotage with hardwire coding and everything!"

Shiro and Lance took off again, veering back toward town, as the other three landed beside the first cruiser.

"Hey, Shiro – how're we going to find this Ryltax guy?"

Voltron's leader let out his breath in a faint sigh. "I don't know. Coran, any further tracking on Ryltax's position?"

"I'm afraid not. From what we saw, he was somewhere near the castle, but I can't get any furth –" His voice cut off with a crackle of static.

"Coran? Allura?"

Pidge appeared above his controls. "Shiro, something's jamming us from outside communications. I can hack it, but it'll take time."

"No; continue with your mission. This may be a ploy to distract us."

"We could probably find him without the castle's help, anyway," said Hunk. "I mean, if you cross-reference the previous frequency broadcasting with the current one, you should get the location –"

"Yeah, great idea! Hold on." Pidge typed furiously for a moment, checked over whatever results she had obtained, and swiped across screen. A new display popped up before Shiro. "Here. I can't get the exact location, but the general transmission area of the jamming frequency is marked in red."

"Thanks, Pidge. If Ryltax is responsible, Lance, he'll probably be near there."

Lance gave him a nervous look. "Why do I feel like this isn't going to turn out well? I mean, geez, if his quintessence upgrades are anything like that guy on Beta Traz, we're in for it. _Slav_ had to save us."

"Yeah," said Shiro, unable to repress a grin. "I'm still glad Slav isn't with us, though."

Lance chortled with glee. "I totally love watching when you two are in the same room. He's all like 'yakkity-yakkity-yak', and you're all like 'I'm trying not to lose my temper' . . ." He laughed harder. "I mean, the look on your face sometimes is SO funny!"

"Yes, well," said Shiro. "Let's just concentrate on taking out Ryltax."

But even this 'serious voice' reminder of their mission failed to keep Lance from snickering all the way across the city. 

Pidge scanned the main control consul and relayed her findings to Hunk. "I need you to get under there and pull apart all the critical wires needed for the navigational systems," she said, crawling under another station. "I'll take care of the engines."

Keith stood in the middle of the room, sword at the ready. He cast a glance in Pidge's direction. "You mean you can access everything from the bridge?"

She was lying on her back beneath the engine controls, but at his question she slid out to stare at him. "Uh, yeah? That's kind of what the bridge is for, Keith."

"No, I meant – you can disable them from here? Aren't there other stations that can control them?"

She scooted back beneath the desk. "Yes, but don't worry. I'm just going to insert a few lines of code here and there, which should keep any two systems from communicating with each other."  
"Yeah," said Hunk, jerking out a wire with a loud _pop_. "And even the manually controlled systems need to communicate with each other in order to take off."

"Besides," said Pidge, "this program I just finished writing is in a code that is extremely hard to locate, because there's so little of it. If everything goes as planned, they won't even be able to find where it is."

Keith glanced between them, a slight smile crossing his face. "You know, sometimes you two worry me," he said.

Hunk laughed. "Wait, did you just make another joke?"

"What do you mean, 'another'?" said Pidge. "He's made one before? Apart from blistering retorts at Lance, I mean? 'Cause those are good, but they're not exactly jokes."

"Hey!" cut in Lance's offended voice. "His retorts aren't half as good as mine!"

"Actually, they are," said Keith blandly. "You just don't understand them."

Lance actually spluttered. "Well – well maybe I would if you didn't mumble all the time. . ." On their helmet displays, he cocked his head to one side, narrowing his eyes and pursing his lips. "Okay, that _was_ a pretty lame retort. But so was Keith's!"

"Guys . . ." said Shiro.

Lance abruptly vanished from their displays, although they could still hear sporadic muttering.  
Then Shiro spoke again. "I'm shutting off comms to you guys for now; we'll all get too distracted otherwise. Check in as soon as you've finished."

"Will do," said Hunk, clicking off his own transmitter.

It only took Pidge and Hunk a few minutes to disable the remainder of the cruiser's systems, and no one interrupted them. Keith was getting fidgety. They shouldn't be able to walk onto a Galra supercruiser, sabotage the entire system, and not be noticed. Surely there were some officers left, even if the droids were dumb enough not to notice when the communications array shut off.

"Keith, I need you to activate this for me," said Pidge, pointing to a large, flat display at the center of the bridge.

"Sure – where, exactly?"

"Anywhere. I just need it powered up."

Of course, the Galra showed up the minute he put his sword down. Keith slapped at the display with one hand, drew his knife with the other, and flung it at the officer, who was already firing.

"Okay, power's on!" yelled Pidge, diving behind him to get at the consul.

Keith and Hunk stood in front of her; Keith mostly deflected laser blasts, while Hunk used his bayard like a machine gun, firing a steady stream of shots that knocked down droids like bowling pins.

"Code activated. Let's go!" Pidge's bayard shot up into the ceiling and she swung over their heads to reach the hole (recently 'installed' by Yellow's claws) that they had originally entered through.

Hunk paused to admire his handiwork, then took off clumsily, almost slamming into the edge of the hole as he swerved off-balance.

Keith hung behind a moment longer in order to retrieve his knife. When he took off, he did it so fast that he zoomed through the hole in the roof and accidentally whacked Hunk in the nose with his elbow.

"Oh, ow, Keith – _man_!" Hunk held his nose with his free hand, checked his fingers, and pinched his nose again. "Is id bleedig?"

"No," said Pidge, wearing a much larger grin than usual.

"Sorry," said Keith, shaking his head. Of all the dumb things to do, hitting your teammate in the face because you weren't watching where you were going. If there had been Galra around, they'd have been in real trouble.

"No problem," said Hunk with a slight grin. "Just be glad we had our external comms off. . . Lance would've died laughing."

 _That_ Keith definitely agreed with.


	5. Chapter 5

Lance flew over the city for the sixth time, staring hard at the ground. The jamming device was blocking his sensors so well that even droids weren't showing up on them. Hey, wouldn't it be nice if Ryltax showed up, standing in plain view on top of a large metal thing marked 'Jamming Device'? Easy peasy.

Then, in a narrow street between two rows of peaceful houses –

"Shiro, I think I see him! At least, there's a big, obnoxious-looking Galra with weird purple thingies sticking out of his shoulders."

"Where?"

"Here; I'm right above him." Lance brought his lion to a standstill in midair, hovering until Shiro joined him.

"He's in too small an area for the lions to attack," said Shiro after a long moment. "I'll . . . have to land. You stay up here."

"Nope, no way!" said Lance. "Shiro, seriously, that is a _very_ bad idea."

Shiro's mouth set in that half-stubborn, half-scared line, and Lance sighed as loudly as he feasibly could – without hurting his lungs.  
"Shiro. We have to defeat him. It took three of us plus Slav to even get past the last guy, and this one looks _way_ more dangerous."

As if to prove his words, the Galra commander, who was gazing up at them with a confident expression, activated one of the Druidic devices on his shoulders.

The purple quintessence drained from the tube, and Ryltax grew, expanding until he was taller than the houses that surrounded him. Lance really hoped that he grew to fill the street and just sort of stuck there, but the Galra still had plenty of room to maneuver when he stopped changing. He turned to face them fully, and Lance gasped.

"What the heck? Is that an arm?"

Instead of a normal arm, the Galra had a long, flexible-looking metal appendage that seemed capable of bending in any direction. At the end, where a hand should be, the metal cord – or whatever it was – split into five much thinner pieces, each ending in a cruel point.

"Okay, that's just gross," said Lance. "His fingers bend _backwards!_ "

"They don't have joints," Shiro replied. He took a deep breath and added, almost to himself, "This'll be a challenge. . . Lance, I'll land in the next street and engage Ryltax. You stay up here and cover me."

Lance and Blue shared a mental eye-roll. 'Cover me.' Right. They couldn't cover him from the air – any shot from Blue's cannons might hit Shiro, or the houses (which probably still had inhabitants), and Shiro knew it perfectly well.

He was just being protective again.

"– which is great, except when it's not," Lance muttered to his lion.

"What?" said Shiro, landing a little distance away.

"Gah! Nothing. Just talking to Blue."

Ryltax swung his metallic arm easily, bending it first one way, then another, and turned to face the alley which Shiro was now creeping along. Lance bit his lip as the metal fingers stiffened into claws.

"Come on, Blue!" He dove at Ryltax, who paused to look at him; at the last possible second, he pulled out of his dive, sending a short burst of ice at the center of the street, between the Galra and the black paladin. That should buy Shiro a couple seconds . . . and in the meantime, he _was_ going to land.

"Second ship disabled," reported Pidge, typing rapidly, her glasses reflecting the light from the screen. "Entering code now. Loading . . . and . . . _activated!_ "

"Oh, yeah!" Hunk disentangled himself from the wires he'd been ripping apart and followed Pidge upward, this time managing to fly through the hole with ease.

Keith was waiting for them; the droids that had occupied this supercruiser, apparently, had all been sent into the city, and Keith had gone to scout around the third ship.

"One more to go," Pidge told him. "How's it looking?"

"I took out a couple of guards outside the ship, but that's it."

"Uh, I don't know about you, but that seems a little weird," said Hunk.

Keith glanced at him. "Why?"

"Where's his army? I mean, this is the cruiser Ryltax was on, isn't it?"

"I don't know. They all look pretty much alike."

Pidge brought up the schematics and held them so Hunk and Keith could look over her shoulders. "It's the biggest, and it's got extra shielding on the bridge, which means it was Ryltax's."

"Maybe he brought his army into the city with him," suggested Keith.

Hunk frowned thoughtfully. "Yeah, except that the first ship was still full of droids. From what we've seen so far in land battles, the commander's troops are always held in reserve for as long as possible."

"Well, Coran did say that Ryltax had a reputation for being tricky," said Pidge, shutting off her wrist display with a flick. "Maybe he's actually been using the smaller cruiser, and this one is a decoy."

"So – do we go in?" asked Hunk.

Keith nodded decisively. "We have to complete our half of the mission, and we can't rely on help from Coran or Allura right now."

"Yeah. Not fun," said Hunk. "I hate creeping down those purple-lit hallways and trying to be quiet so no droids hear us, and you know what else I hate? I _really_ hate turning corners and running right into ambushes and trying to fight our way out and getting surrounded."

He took a huge, calming breath, apparently not noticing Pidge and Keith's dumbstruck expressions at his long, rapid speech, and continued, "Okay. I'm ready now. You guys ready?"

"Hunk," said Keith, leading the way up the unguarded ramp. "We just went and disabled two ships without any trouble, and now you're getting nervous about the third one?"

"I was already nervous," said Hunk, peering around the corner. "Hallway's clear, guys. See, I start out nervous, then I get more nervous as time goes on, and then it just sort of all comes out at once. Aren't you nervous, Pidge?"

"Nope," she said, eyes glued to her technical read-outs. "I was at first, but I usually get less jittery as time goes on."

"Oh," said Hunk. "When something goes wrong right away, I'm fine afterwards, but nothing's gone wrong yet."

Keith blinked, his mind bringing up an image of Shiro battling Ryltax by himself, Lance shouting desperate advice from his lion's cockpit. "Wait, you _want_ something to go wrong?"

"Of course not. Just, most of the time, it does, and –"

Keith sprang past him, plunging his sword through a droid that was just lifting its gun to firing position.

Hunk barely even paused. "See? Like that. Where'd _he_ come from?"

"That alcove," said Pidge. "Weird. There were no active droids when I scanned the hallway. Maybe there's a motion detector in it. Or maybe –" She knelt beside the robot and worked for a moment. "It's set to respond to noise, which means the ship's basically abandoned. There are probably others, though."

Keith crept forward again, the other two paladins following closely. "We should be fine if we keep quiet," he said, glancing at them.

He didn't intend to be pointed about it, but Hunk gave him a sheepish grin all the same and whispered, "Right. Sorry."

Shiro distinctly heard Lance fire Blue's ice cannon, and then the crackling, squeaky-dry sound of ice crystals forming. Slowing down a bit, he lit his prosthetic hand with a flick of his fingers and ducked around the corner.

Ryltax faced him through the wall of ice, and Shiro was dimly aware that Blue had disappeared. Before he had time to do more than notice this fact, Ryltax's metallic arm raked down the wall of ice, gouging out huge pieces. Shiro's skin crawled at the sound as he moved to the attack, jetpacking over the ice and aiming a hard blow at Ryltax's chest.

His glowing hand sliced into the Galra's armor and Ryltax jerked back from the heat, his own huge left fist slamming into Shiro's back and sending him reeling forward into the nearest wall.

 _Move, move, move!_ Shiro's mind screamed, and he barely rolled out of the way before the waving metal arm spiked into the ground where he had just been, its hooked fingers cutting through the hard earth instantly.

Activating his jetpack, Shiro kicked hard off the wall and flipped backwards over Ryltax's head. As he passed the druid-made arm, he lashed out, attempting to sever it, but his hand skidded over the metal surface, repelled by some sort of shield.

Time to change tactics. Brute strength wasn't going to be enough to handle this warlord.

A shot distracted him, just for an instant, and he caught a flash of blue from the corner of his vision. "Lance!" he shouted, sprinting in the opposite direction to distract Ryltax. "I thought I said to cover me!"

"Yep, and that's what I'm doing," said Lance in that half-snide, half-confident tone that he tended to use when he was tense. He fired steadily, lasers pinging against Ryltax's upgraded limb.

"Paladins!" the Galra shouted suddenly, his voice magnified by his size. "You have no hope of victory. Surrender and live."

Lance continued to shoot. "I kind of thought your whole thing was 'victory or death'. How does that work, anyway?"

This seemed to stump Ryltax for a moment, and Shiro took the opportunity to land a couple of well-placed blows against his chestplate. The Galra reeled back from the force of the blows, then stretched his metal arm and knocked Lance sprawling.

The blue paladin took longer than normal to get up, and Shiro remembered with a sudden flash of worry that Lance was already injured. He yelled, leaping up and clinging onto Ryltax's normal arm, burning through the tough armor with his prosthetic until the howling Galra slammed him against a house.

Lance shot again, and this time his laser punctured the armor. Ryltax roared in fury and charged him as Shiro struggled to rise, gasping for breath.

As Keith entered the bridge of the last supercruiser, Pidge and Hunk chattering on behind him about . . . something technical, he wasn't actually sure what – his helmet display alerted him that he was receiving an incoming message.

"Guys," Keith warned quickly, turning to the other two as he acknowledged the radio call. "This is Keith. What's going on?"

Rapid blasterfire sounded, followed by a splintering crash and a very Galra-sounding bellow, and Lance shouted, "Howsooncanyougetoverhere?"

"We're on the last ship now," said Pidge, running towards the engine control station.

Hunk rushed after her. "Yeah, we'll be done in two ticks! What's up, buddy?"

"This guy's _big_!"

Keith didn't find that to be very enlightening. "Where are you?"

"Hey, MORON! Get _over_ here!"

"I can't!" Keith shouted back. "We have to –"

Another crash. "I – _oww_ – wasn't talking to you, Mullet."

Pidge stopped removing the casing from the engine station and looked up, worried. "Uh, Lance?"

"Just distracting the purple alien guy."

Shiro's voice cut in over the continued shots from Lance's bayard. "Keith."

"I'm here, Shiro. They're disabling the last ship, but I can come. Where –?"

"No, stay with them." Shiro was breathing hard, apparently running for all he was worth. "We'll keep Ryltax busy near the castle 'til you get here . . . Just – hurry."

The comms cut out again, and Keith clenched his fists.

"Oh, I _knew_ something would go wrong," muttered Hunk, working with feverish haste to get at the sensor-system wires.

"We've got this," Pidge told him calmly. She drew her bayard and slashed it through the engine system.  
A loud alarm sounded from the main control panel, and Keith's eyes widened in horror. "Pidge, Hunk, _MOVE_!"

He had taken perhaps two steps towards them when the entire room exploded into a whirl of fiery motion and noise. A powerful blast lifted him into the air and spun him around until he smashed hard against the far wall. Hundreds of bits of debris clattered into his armor with the force of bullets, and one large shard sliced open his arm at the shoulder.

Then, without warning, the noise and light faded, and Keith fell abruptly to the ground, where he lay motionless, trying to cover the back of his neck with his hands while pieces of metal rained down all around.

 **Yay! Cliff-hanger! . . . Sorry, I've been wanting to end a chapter with one for a while now . . . :D I'm posting again tomorrow and Sunday, though. Please, if you have a moment, send along a quick comment? :) Thanks!**


	6. Chapter 6

It felt like a long time before the pattering sound finally died away into nothingness. Keith waited a few ticks longer, then shifted cautiously, dislodging a large piece of something – the ceiling? – that had somehow landed across his back without his having really noticed it.

Bracing his hands, he got painfully to his knees and stared in dismay at the destroyed bridge.  
The other two paladins were nowhere in sight.

"H-Hunk?" he croaked. There was no reply. "Pidge?"

Clearing his throat hard in an attempt to remove the dust, Keith stumbled to his feet, still holding his bayard, and moved towards the last place he had seen them. "Hunk! Can you hear me? Pidge?"

A large pile of metal nearby shifted, and Keith let out a sigh of relief as Hunk crawled out, coughing. "Keith, what the – you okay?"

"Fine," he said, still looking distractedly around for Pidge. "You?"

"Can't walk," said Hunk after a moment. "Think I landed wrong on my knee and . . ." He gripped what was left of the main control panel and hauled himself upright, grimacing. "Yeah, no walking. Where's Pidge?"

An entire corner of the bridge had collapsed, sliding inward to create a sort of hill, and Keith unwillingly looked at it. "I think . . ."

"Oh, man," said Hunk, dropping to his hands and one knee and crawling forward as fast as he could. "Not good, not good, not good, not good, not . . ."

Keith rushed past him and across the room, where he snatched at a large piece of metal, tugging it away from the floor. "Pidge!"

"Don't move that piece!" she squeaked, sounding very small. "It's holding up some of the other stuff. I can't move."

"Are you hurt?"

She snorted. "I'm under a huge pile of heavy stuff, so yeah. But I'm actually more concerned about whether or not this junk is going to crush me. What does it look like from out there?"

"Not good," Hunk said, reaching them, but Keith couldn't tell if he was answering Pidge's question or simply continuing his muttering from earlier.

He stepped back, studying the debris. "There's a lot of big pieces. I'll have to lift from the top down, but I should be able to get you out just fine."

She spoke again, sounding more breathless than before. "Just don't step on the pile. At all."

Another alarm went off in Keith's head. "Hunk, keep her talking."

As the yellow paladin crawled to the tiny opening, he flew into the air and slashed through a twisted piece that hung from the ceiling. He was barely able to catch it before it fell on the rest of the debris, but he managed, shifting it to one side and letting it fall to the ground. One piece gone. Next one . . .

As he worked, his mouth set in a grim line, he heard the other two talking – or rather, he heard Hunk talking, and a faint murmur from Pidge.

"Don't worry, Keith'll get you outta here really fast, and then we'll all go save Shiro and Lance, and then –"

He stopped short, staring up at Keith. "We forgot about Shiro and Lance!"

The red paladin gritted his teeth and turned back to his task, activating his outside comms. "Shiro? Shiro, if you can hear me – the bridge was rigged. Pidge is trapped, I'm trying to get her out."

A loud crackle of static was interrupted by Lance's voice. "I'm trying to catch up with Shiro. Ryltax went after him, and I think his comms are out now. Can Hunk get to us? We _really_ need some help here!"

Keith forced himself to move faster, despite his sore muscles and general fatigue. "Hunk can't walk. I'll get to you as soon as Pidge is free. Leave the comms on."

"Will do," Lance replied. "Oh, and if I start shouting insults again, they'll be directed at Ryltax. Mostly."

The smirk in his voice was clearly audible, and Keith gave a loud sigh as he dumped another metallic shard to one side. "Maybe you should get back to Blue."

"Nope. No way. Galra-guy keeps squeezing into the smallest roads he can find, and Blue can't maneuver in them at all."

Keith didn't answer; first, because he had no breath to do so, and second, because he actually had no further suggestions to make. With a slash of his sword, he cut free the last heavy piece and kicked it, slamming it away from the pile of debris.

Hunk, who had been watching his progress, leaned down to peer through the gap again. "Pidge, we're ready to try moving you."

"I can't," she said bluntly. "It'll all come down on top of me."

Keith landed beside Hunk. "No it won't, but we don't have time to remove everything. You're gonna have to crawl out."

There was a moment of silence, then Pidge said, "Fine. Tell me what to do."

"Move toward us. Slowly," said Keith, keeping one eye on the tottering heap that towered above his head.

Hunk frowned up at it, too, then slowly got to his feet and limped to the far side of the pile, where he leaned against it. "Okay, Pidge. I'm steadying it."

Keith dropped to his stomach so he could see through the gap. Pidge stared back at him, her eyes very large. One hand was raised, as though to ward off the metal beam that hung a few inches above her.

"Come on," he said, reaching towards her, but she closed her eyes and shook her head once. "Pidge, come on. We've got to get out of here. I moved all the large stuff."

She made some attempt to move forward, then stopped short, cringing and ducking as the metal shifted above her. "I can't, Keith. I _can't_."

Keith quenched his first impulse, which was to snap at her, and instead moved his hand closer, gripping her wrist. "Pidge. Shiro and Lance are in trouble, and I need you to help."

She gave him one tiny nod, and he added, "Close your eyes. I'll tell you what to do."

He kept one hand on her arm, guiding her steadily forward, ignoring the scraping metal as the pile shifted further.

Hunk braced his back against the metal. "See that beam in there?"

"Yeah."

"Soon as Pidge gets her head past it, pull her out."

Keith didn't wait to question him. The deck of the bridge was shifting beneath him, and he wondered exactly how much damage the bomb had done – and whether or not there was another one hidden away, waiting to be set off.

"Hang on, Pidge," he said, getting to his knees.

His helmet crackled again, and Lance let out a high-pitched yelp, which was followed by a loud crash. "Keith? Hunk? Some time this decaphebe would be really, reeeeaaaally nice!"

Hunk fidgeted a little. "Lance? Lance, what's going on? Where's Shiro? Are there a lot of droids?"

Keith grabbed Pidge under the arms and jerked back as hard as she could.

"No droids, only Ryltaxes," Lance answered as Pidge landed on top of Keith and knocked him over.

"Plural?" yelped Hunk, leaping away from the pile, which began to crumble inward on itself.

Lance groaned. "At least three, man. I dunno, maybe my vision's impaired or something?"

Pidge clambered to her feet, wincing and stretching gratefully. "Lance, you probably just hit your head. We're on our way."

Keith braced Hunk on his left side, taking some of the weight off his left leg, and they all stumbled forward. Pidge used her bayard to cut through the side of the bridge. No droids in sight, and their lions were right beneath them, but they'd definitely have to jump – which could be a problem.

"Don't use your jetpack," Keith told Hunk. "I'll handle it."

Before Hunk could open his mouth to argue, Keith jumped, dragging the heavier paladin with him, and fired his jetpack, leaning hard to the left to counterbalance the unfamiliar weight on his right side.

They still landed heavily, but at least they hadn't gone spinning into the supercruiser. Or the ground. Pidge stopped just beside them, and Keith took the opportunity to check if she was hurt or not, but she just shook her head and insisted she was fine. "Just bruises and stuff," she said.

Keith, of course, being a master of saying he was fine no matter what, knew perfectly well that 'and stuff' usually meant things like, oh, sprained ankles or wrists, or even cracked ribs. All he said, though, was, "Get to your lion."

Once Hunk was safely deposited in Yellow, Keith raced to his own lion, which powered up instantly. The three of them flew upward and streaked across the city.

"Lance, Shiro, we're nearing the castle," Pidge said. "Where are you?"

There was no reply, but just then Keith caught sight of Blue, who was hovering above the houses, seemingly of her own accord. Keith glanced around carefully, his sensors still flickering and buzzing.

"Pidge? You and Hunk try to work through this jamming. I'm going in."

"Good luck," Pidge replied, barely glancing at him through the screens as she typed furiously away.

Keith balanced on the edge of Red's open jaw as she drew to a halt beside Blue. Lasers flickered suddenly from a nearby alleyway, and he jumped, flying towards their source.

He hit the ground running and sprinted over to Lance, who was slumped sideways against a building, firing nonstop at a _huge_ Galra with a weird metallic arm. Keith nearly did a double-take as he looked at the arm. It moved like a snake, stretching longer and longer as it reached for him.

Keith's sword bounced off the bending fingers, but he struck again. And again. The fourth time he struck, there was a faint vibration, and a pale red light flashed over the metal, then flickered off.

"Yeah!" hollered Lance gleefully. "You got his shield!"

The Galra's other arm slammed into him, knocking him flat, and Keith jetpacked upward in an attempt to reach Ryltax's face. The metal hand appeared suddenly, moving with unnatural speed, and tightened around his waist for an instant before throwing him.

Lance was just getting to his feet when Keith landed against him and slammed them both into the wall. Ryltax's metal arm closed around Lance, and his regular arm around Keith, pinning their bayards to their sides. "For the last time, paladins of Voltron," he rumbled, "surrender or be destroyed."

Two furious glares were his only response.

"Very well," he said, all but shrugging. He leaned forward, and one metal finger detached itself from Lance to bend backwards and punch a button on his forearm.

Keith noticed for the first time that only one of the vials of quintessence had been activated. The other slowly drained, and the two paladins held their breaths as they waited to see what would happen.

For a moment, there was no obvious change. Keith tried kicking at Ryltax's wrist, but the Galra only tightened his grip, and he couldn't really kick hard enough right now anyway, so he gave up. For the moment.

"So . . ." said Lance conversationally. "Why are we just standing here?"

The upper portion of the metallic arm sparked once, then burst into purple flickers of electricity as the quintessence took hold. Ryltax sneered, showing his huge fangs. "Surrender."

Keith twisted sideways, trying to reach his knife, and Lance struggled uselessly against the Galra's tight grip. Ryltax shocked him and dropped Keith on the ground, then shocked _him_.

It felt like being hit by the Druid's spell again, which was really, _really_ not good, but he managed to grab his knife nevertheless. Taking a deep breath, he twisted to the side, away from the sparking fingers, and stabbed at the regular arm with both weapons.

Ryltax bellowed in pain, rearing up and pulling Keith, who was still clutching the hilts of his knife and bayard, forward onto his knees. The purple lightning stopped abruptly.

"We located the jamming device," reported Pidge tensely. "Destroying it now."

Lance grabbed Keith's arm and yanked him back, and both of them staggered into the nearest alleyway, Ryltax crashing after them.


	7. Chapter 7

Shiro felt as though he had been running for hours, and he didn't know where Lance was. He'd heard his teammate talking to the others just a few moments ago; at least, he _thought_ it was only a few moments, but being unconscious tended to do strange things to his sense of time.  
And to his sense of direction, apparently. He had no idea where he was, having woken some distance away from where he'd last been – Ryltax must have thrown him, which would definitely explain the lack of consciousness. And the headache.

Laserfire sounded suddenly, some distance into the city, and he swerved to follow it, running with every ounce of speed he had left. A sudden breeze caught his attention, and Red zoomed overhead, pausing mid-air to let a small figure jump down before she flew off again.

Shiro bent his head and kept running. The stutter of laserfire stopped abruptly. Almost there, almost there . . . He could feel himself slowing down, despite his best attempts, and he was gasping for breath. He gritted his teeth. "Come _on!_ "

He ducked an overhanging street sign, vaulted a pile of crates, dodged abandoned carts and boxes of various merchandise. He must be nearing the marketplace, he realized vaguely; not that it mattered.

A sharp crackling noise from very close by was followed by twin yells, and Shiro's hand lit up without conscious thought on his part. Ryltax let out a roar of pain. A flash of red and blue drew his attention, and Keith and Lance stumbled out of the alleyway just in front of him. A metal hand groped and crawled on the ground behind them, its long fingers snapping closed just shy of Lance's heel. Keith turned with a snarl and slashed at it, but it withdrew suddenly.

Shiro joined the two younger paladins, both of whom were reeling and panting for breath. He was just opening his mouth to order them to take cover when, with a splintering crash, Ryltax smashed through the house in front of them.

At least the Galra didn't wait to order their surrender this time – instead, his crackling arm reached for Keith. Shiro intercepted it, blocking its glowing hand with his own, and Lance jerked Keith to one side, yelling at him to 'cut it off, already!'

Instead, Keith decided to jump in front of the Galra's other arm, which was swinging at Shiro. He was punched directly against Shiro, who barely managed to deactivate his hand in time to avoid impaling Keith as both of them were shoved hard against the nearest wall.

"Quiznaking quiznak!" Lance yelled, eyes wide with alarm. He turned back to Ryltax and fired again and again. "DIE already, will you? Exactly how many shots can you take?"

Blue lasers pinged into the metal arm, but before they could do any significant damage, Ryltax knocked Lance to the ground and held him there with his regular hand. The blue paladin yelped indignantly and struggled.

Shiro hauled Keith to his feet. "Use your sword on that metal arm," he ordered. "I'll distract him."

Keith nodded and dropped into a half-crouch, his eyes and mouth thinned in concentration as he waited for the right moment. Shiro, his hand glowing again, rushed forward and sliced right through the Galra's regular wrist.

As he completed his turn, coming back around to face Ryltax, he barely heard Keith's yell of "Shiro, look out!" before all five sharp metal fingers pierced the right side of his chestplate, lifting him into the air and pinning him against the second floor of a house.

Shiro gasped and clamped both hands around the metal wrist, struggling to lift some of his weight. His prosthetic hand burned slowly through Ryltax's arm, and the Galra activated the purple electricity again.

Shiro's yells were nearly drowned out by Keith and Lance's shouts of fury, and then they moved _fast_ , faster than Shiro had ever seen them move before. Lance ran right up to Ryltax, shoving his gun against the shoulder joint of the metal arm. At exactly the same moment, Keith sprinted forward, firing his jetpack and soaring into the air.

Shiro had the presence of mind to move his hands out of the way, even though his weight dragged down particularly hard against the claws piercing his back. Keith's bayard came down once, twice on the same spot where Shiro had damaged it, and as it fell away, Lance fired.

The huge Galra reeled back, the metal arm falling to the ground with a heavy _thud._

The thrusters on Keith's jetpack were running out, but he stabbed his sword into the wall above his head and hung by one hand, the other hand gripping Shiro's left elbow and lifting his weight.

Ryltax, roaring and shouting, used his remaining hand to smack Lance aside, and raised a clawed foot to stamp him into the ground. Before he could complete the action, the yellow and green lions streaked to a halt just above him, their jaws opening. Pidge's bayard lashed around Ryltax's neck, jerking him off-balance, and Hunk, who for some reason was standing on one foot, sent a stream of heavy lasers into him.

When he finally stopped shooting, everything seemed to pause for a long moment. Shiro blinked, trying to clear his vision. Ryltax took two steps back, wavered, stood a moment longer . . . and fell, toppling forward with an earth-shaking crash.  
Hunk gave a tired cheer, and Pidge snapped, "Finally!"

"Guys," said Keith in a strained voice, his arms shaking. "A little help here?"

"Ohmygosh," said Lance, flying up to them and balancing precariously on a windowsill. He glanced at the metal hand for a moment, then gave Shiro an apologetic look. "We're gonna have to pull this out to get you down. It's kind of pinned to the wall."

Shiro grimaced. "At least it went in nice and straight."

"Yeah, but," said Lance uncertainly. Hunk gulped queasily and held his stomach.

"Hey," said Shiro, with a miniscule shrug. "It's either that or I end my days as a wall decoration."

Judging by the glare Keith was giving him, his statement wasn't funny _at all_ , but Lance had the tiniest of tiny smirks on his face.

Hunk maneuvered in careful increments until his lion was hovering just beneath them, and Pidge jumped to Yellow's head from Green. "Sorry, Shiro," she said in a business-like tone, summoning her bayard and changing one or two settings. "But you'll thank me in a minute."

"Wait, what –?" he began, and she touched her bayard to his stomach, sending a jolt of electricity into him that hurt for only an instant before making him pleasantly numb.

"Great idea, Pidge," said Keith. He kicked off from the wall, pulling his sword free, and landed beside her. Lance hopped down from his windowsill.

Keith took a couple of deep breaths. "You okay, Shiro?"

Shiro's mouth was too numb to form words, so Lance answered. "What kind of dumb question is that? He needs a cryopod, STAT."

Keith growled. "I _know_ _that_

. Let's just get that hand out."

He looked a little ill at the idea, and Pidge said, "You guys got this? I'm heading back to Green."

Lance nodded understandingly. "No problem, Pidge. I'll – take it out. Hunk, keep Yellow steady!"

"Go ahead," Hunk replied.

Lance gripped the metal hand at the base of the fingers. Keith stood on his toes to reach Shiro's elbow, ready to catch him. Shiro braced himself mentally, but felt nothing at all as Lance pulled the sharp weapon out – thank goodness for Pidge and her unusual anaesthetic.

He slid nervelessly against Keith's shoulder and overbalanced him. Both slumped down to kneel on Yellow's head. Lance shuddered and threw the metal hand away as hard as he could.

"Paladins!" called Allura's voice. "Are you all right?"

"Umm," said Hunk, still sounding sick. "Not really?"

"Can you make it back here?" Coran asked. "I could ready a shuttle."

"No, we're on our way," said Pidge from Green's cockpit. "Hunk, I'll need your help towing Black to the castle."

"On it."

Lance and Keith each grabbed one of Shiro's arms and flew down to where Red was sitting. Once they had settled him in the cockpit – which was a little hard, as he was so numb he couldn't move a muscle on his own – Lance limped over to Blue. All four of them took off, the black lion sandwiched between Yellow and Green.

"Let's get this show on the road," said Lance happily, as they streaked into the atmosphere.

"I think we already did," Pidge replied. "Destroyed an enemy fleet, saved the royal family –"

"– sabotaged two supercruisers –" interrupted Hunk.

"– took out a bunch of droids –" added Lance.

"– nearly got blown up –" said Keith.

Everyone paused.

"Well, yeah," said Pidge finally. "I guess that could be put down as an achievement."

"Especially since we didn't _actually_ get blown up, right?" mused Hunk. "I mean, almost isn't the same as actually, so yeah."

Lance continued. "And we took out Ryltax together, which was so amazingly cool. Heck, even _Allura_ couldn't complain about our teamwork on that one."

"Yeah," Keith added, glancing at the camera feeds that showed Hunk and Pidge. "You guys showed up just in time."

"We're awesome," agreed Hunk.

Allura appeared on their screens. "I heard that comment, Lance."

He gave her his best attempt at a shiny smile, then winced. "Oops."

She gave him a concerned frown. "Coran's readying the pods. How many of you are injured?"

"Shiro," they all said together.

"And Pidge," said Keith. "And Lance."

Then everyone spoke at once. Lance shouted that Keith and Hunk were the ones in need of cryopods. Keith said that Lance had been shot, which probably meant he needed one. Pidge said Keith definitely needed one, he was bleeding all over his armor. Keith said he was _not_ , that was barely a scratch, and Pidge was the one who had been buried in a pile of metal anyway. Hunk said he thought everyone might need one.

Shiro tried to interrupt, but still couldn't manage to speak.

Lance said that Hunk was a mechanic, not a doctor, and besides, getting shot wasn't nearly as bad as nearly getting blown up. Pidge retorted that Lance wasn't a doctor either, and getting thrown around by a huge Galra with an upgraded arm was worse than spraining your knee, but yes, Hunk needed a healing pod too. Keith said Pidge, Lance, and Hunk _all_ needed pods. Lance yelled that Keith was totally bleeding all over his armor – you just couldn't tell, because his armor was red. Hunk and Pidge sided with him, and Keith said that was ridiculous – his armor wasn't that shade of red at all. Pidge said something about a theory concerning Galra and their tendency toward color-blindness. Keith growled.

"Paladins, STOP!" Allura actually shouted, her white hair frizzing, arms stiff at her sides. "All I wanted to know was how many cryopods are needed. Since you obviously aren't going to answer properly, I'll ask Shiro."

"Yeah . . . about that," said Lance, sounding rather gleeful. Hunk and Pidge were openly grinning, and Shiro was willing to bet that Keith was wearing a smirk at the very least. "Shiro can't really talk right now."

The black paladin cleared his throat. "Actually, Shiro can," he said. "And all of them will need cryopods, Princess."

Her eyebrow tilted dangerously. "All of _them_?"

"Uh, right. All of _us._ "

She narrowed her blue eyes and frowned, huffing in disgust. "Paladins."

The five paladins of Voltron waited until she disappeared from their screens, then burst into uncontrollable laughter that stopped only when they landed in the main hangar.

 **Another chapter or so of 'fluff' to follow. . . :) Please review!**


	8. Chapter 8

Pidge woke first, flopping out of the cryopod and onto a mattress that someone – probably Coran – had thoughtfully placed there for her. For some reason, whenever she woke from cryosleep, she fell flat.

Actually, Shiro was the only one who really woke up with all of his senses intact. Everyone else was . . . less than alert. She snickered into the mattress at the memories of how the others woke up. Lance and Keith managed to keep their balance fairly well, at least enough to stay on their feet, although Lance had this tendency to tilt around like he'd just gotten off a dizzy ride. Hunk usually walked out of the pod, across the room and into the nearest wall, where he would lean, snoring loudly, for another five or ten doboshes.

Momentary grogginess aside, though, the cryopods were extremely efficient at healing the paladins. She rolled over onto her back and performed her usual mental tally. Bruised ribs healed? Check. Headache gone? Check. Burns from near laser-hits taken care of? Check and double-check.

Pidge got slowly to her feet. The other four paladins were still sleeping, so she stumbled off to take a shower and get something to eat. She was pretty sure that Hunk's stash of cookies was still in the kitchen. Probably hidden in the dish dispenser or somewhere crazy, but she'd find it. Grinning evilly, she trotted out of the room.

She got back to the medbay a varga later, her laptop under one arm and a bag of cookies in the other. Keith was slouched against the far wall, dressed in his perpetual red jacket and black tee-shirt and pants. She crossed the room and flopped down beside him, wordlessly holding out the bag of cookies.

He glanced up. "Aren't those Hunk's?"

She shot him a single look and took a huge bite.

Keith shrugged, taking one. "I thought he said he'd hidden them really well."

"They were in a box in the pantry," she replied, disgusted. "I wasted tons of time looking in all the good places, and he'd left them in plain view. Cheater."

They munched in silence until Pidge noticed that Hunk's pod was empty. Her mouth was full, she pointed at it, making an inquisitive noise.

Keith barely looked up. "He got out before me."

"Oh." She opened her computer and checked the time. "Wow, we've been in there for a full quintant."

Hunk marched in, interrupting whatever answer Keith might have been going to make. "All right, 'fess up! Who took the cookies?"

The two shorter paladins froze, Pidge with a cookie between her lips and Keith with his mouth open.

A crumb fell from Pidge's half-bitten cookie.

Hunk stumped over, took the bag, and stared into it. "Oh, man, you guys ate almost all of them."  
"They're good," said Keith, by way of explanation.

Hunk beamed. "Actually, I was gonna make some more anyway. Should I change anything? I thought they weren't quite sweet enough, myself, but I bet I could fix it without changing the texture if I – yes! That should work. Okay, see you guys later!"

Without waiting for an answer, he left the room, leaving the bag behind. Pidge reached for it, nudging Keith with her elbow. "Y'know, for someone without a lot of people skills, you sure get lucky sometimes."

Keith smiled faintly and huffed through his nose. "People skills?"

"Yeah, you know." Pidge waved her hand vaguely, then glanced sidelong at him. "By the way, thanks for saving me back there."

Keith shifted uncomfortably. "You'd do the same for me."

"Of course we would, but that's not the point."

"Then what –"

"Just say 'you're welcome' and be done with it," she advised, turning back to her computer.

Lance's pod opened just then, and he stumbled forward, yawning mightily, his eyes half-closed. He veered in their direction, his fingers closing around a cookie as though by accident, then wandered off through the door, muttering, "Hey, guys."

Coran popped into the medbay a short time later to notify them that the king and queen of Dharvel, as well as the princess, had returned to their planet while the paladins were all still healing. "They wished they could stay to thank you each personally," he informed them, checking Shiro's readouts. "But they had to get back, so I'm thanking you for them. So – thank you, paladins of Voltron!"

As he left, Lance gave a disappointed sigh. "I wanted to see Rosie again."

Keith, who had been dozing against the wall, sat upright suddenly. "Why do you keep calling her that, anyway? Her name is _Lira_."

Lance put his nose in the air. "Well, your name is Mullet, and I call you Keith."

"What? My name _is_ Keith!"

"Na-ah, no it's not. It's Mullet."

"Keith!"

"Mullet!"

"KEITH!"

"MULLET! And by the way, I can scream louder than you."

Pidge rolled her eyes and brought up a new file. The arguing grew louder in the background. Pidge plugged her computer into the medbay's sound system. The red and blue paladins kept fighting.  
"No one except you ever calls me that!"

"Yeah, well, that's because, uh, because –"

"GUYS, STOP!" boomed Shiro's voice, at least six times its normal volume.

The two boys glanced cautiously over at his cryopod, where he was sleeping peacefully, then at each other.

"Um," said Lance.

Keith narrowed his eyes and looked at Pidge, who wore the pleased smile of a well-fed cat. "I got the recording from one of our security cameras," she said, by way of explanation.

Lance jumped to his feet. "Wait, how many of those recordings do you have?"

Her smile grew wider. "I'm putting together a playlist of them and sending it to my station on the bridge," she said. "That way, whenever Shiro's out of commission, I can play whichever one I need. Here's what I've got so far."

Turning the volume down a bit, she pressed 'play', leaned back against the wall, and closed her eyes as though relaxing to pleasant music. "Stow it, cadets!. . . You two need to work together. . . Lance, Keith, _enough._ . ."

"Okay, we get the idea," said Lance with a nervous laugh. "You can hit 'stop' now, Pidge."

"If you can't get along with each other for your own sakes, you need to do it for everyone else's sake. . ."

Keith leaned over and pulled the cord from the speaker. "Okay! We get it!"

Her eyes opened. "Good. Now, be quiet and let me work."

Lance and Keith shared long-suffering looks and slumped down. Keith crossed his arms and stared moodily at the floor. Lance gazed at the ceiling for a full two doboshes before pulling out a pack of cards. "Hey, Keith. Wanta play gin rummy or something?"

"I guess."

It was a full three vargas later that Shiro finally woke up and stumbled out of the cryopod to find the others hanging around the medbay. Hunk and Coran were working on a device of some sort, Pidge and Lance were playing a card game and arguing about the rules, Allura was talking to the mice, and Keith was going through a series of fighting stances with his knife, a safe distance from the others.

They were so preoccupied that none of them noticed the healing pod open; in fact, as they were all facing away from him, it was likely they didn't expect it to open for a while. Shiro grinned. Getting his clothes, which hung nearby, he ducked behind the screen and changed quickly, listening to the quiet conversation.

When he stepped out again, they were still busy. He leaned against the cryopod and watched.

"Okay, Coran, I've got this," said Hunk. "You hold the green wires, and I'll –"

The rest of his sentence was drowned out as Allura said, "Keith, please! You nearly hit the control panel."

"Sorry," he muttered.

"Y'know, Keith, that's the fourth time," said Lance, not sounding very argumentative as he glanced up at the red paladin. "Maybe you should do something else?"

Pidge took advantage of Lance's distraction and calmly leaned over, stealing one of his cards from under his nose.

Shiro shook his head and took his 'leader' stance, crossing his arms over his chest. " _Pidge._ "

She yelped, scattering cards in all directions. "Shiro, you're awake!"

Lance cheered, then paused. "Wait. ' _Pidge_ ' what?"

Pidge held up the stolen card with a guilty smile, and he snatched it, looking shocked and offended. Allura got to her feet gracefully, giving Shiro a welcoming smile, and Coran popped up beside him. "Feeling better, I hope?"

"Much better, thanks," Shiro replied.

"Yay!" said Pidge, flinging her arms around him.

Hunk followed suit, nearly squashing both of them. "Oh, man, I'm so glad."

As soon as he released them, Pidge stepped back and Keith punched Shiro's arm. "Don't do that again."

"Yeah," said Lance. "That was . . . kind of scary."

Shiro wrapped an arm around each of them. "Sorry. Everyone feeling better?"

"Back in business!"

"Oh, yeah, totally."

"Yep."

"Yes!"

"Good," he said, releasing Lance and Keith. "Now let's try to keep it that way."

Lance's responding frown wasn't all that convincing. Keith's was, for a very short time. Pidge adjusted her glasses, nodding, and Hunk rubbed the back of his head, grinning sheepishly.

"We'll be debriefing in one varga," announced Allura, heading towards the bridge. "You should probably eat something in the meantime."

Coran bounced on his toes. "I think I have just the thing, actually. Has any of you ever tried a nice, juicy raxelsploid?"

Shiro raised an eyebrow. "Umm . . . nooo?"

"Oh, you're in for a treat, then!"

Hunk interrupted quickly. "It's okay, Coran, you're busy anyway. We'll just get a little food goo for now."

"Thanks, though," added Lance, wearing a huge, frozen smile.

"All right!" agreed Coran, waving as he left. "Later, maybe."

When he was safely out of earshot, Pidge said, "Yeah. _Maybe._ "

Shiro sat in the lounge, listening to Pidge recount how she, Hunk and Keith had managed to get out of the last ship. "Yeah, so we thought that Ryltax had been using the smallest ship for his cruiser, but it turns out he just booby-trapped his command ship. He must have known he wasn't getting off the planet."

Coran glanced up from his datapad. "Pretty tricky, like I said."

"Yeah," said Keith. "The main blast came from the central control panel. He must have assumed we'd go for that first."

Hunk gulped. Lance's eyes were very large. "Wow, you guys were lucky! That was close!"

Pidge nodded. "Well, at least we know to scan for traps before sabotaging next time."

"Hopefully there won't be a next time," Shiro told her.

There probably would be, of course – there always was, but he could still hope. "Good job getting out safely," he said aloud. "And – all of you, thanks for saving me."

Lance elbowed him with a grin. "You're welcome, fearless leader." He snickered. "Always glad to get you _off the hook_."

There was a moment of scandalized silence.

Keith spoke first. "That . . . is the worst pun I have _ever_ heard."

Shiro couldn't help it. He laughed.

Debriefing was over in half a varga, but it took another half varga for Allura to finish scolding them for getting injured as much as they had, although Shiro wasn't sure how she expected them to avoid getting hurt.

Hunk spoke before he could. "Wait – how do you expect us to keep from getting hurt?"

She gave them all a dazzling smile. "I'm using a theory Coran suggested."

Pidge and Hunk gave each other nervous looks. "What theory?" asked Pidge.

Without stopping his work, Coran looked up. "If you hate her scolding enough, you'll be more careful in the future, won't you?"

Keith groaned, and Lance fell back on the lounge, one leg draped over the upper edge. Shiro thought that, if their theatrics were anything to go by, the paladins might actually try a little harder to be careful . . . for a few moments.

Maybe.

He wasn't actually all that optimistic about it.

"Receiving transmission from Dharvel," said Pidge, glancing down at her laptop. "Putting it onscreen."

The screen at the far side of the lounge blinked once, and King Kiwan appeared. Queen Tira stood beside him, holding the little princess.

"Hey, Rosie!" said Lance, bouncing into an upright position. He froze. "I mean, uh, Lira."

The queen smiled. "You saved her life. You're more than welcome to call her 'Rosie'." She cocked her head slightly, blue hair trailing. "Although I still think it an odd name for a child. . ."

"We wish to extend our thanks again for your protection and assistance," said King Kiwan. "We just received word from our home planet that all planets in our system are now entirely free of Galra. They have asked me to inform you that, as a token of our gratitude, you may use any of our planets whenever you need supplies or a place to rest. We will make every effort to assist you with your work."

"That's wonderful!" cried Allura, clasping her hands beneath her chin. "Please extend our sincere gratitude to the ruler of your home planet."

The king and queen of Dharvel bowed their heads in farewell. "We hope to see you again," Kiwan said, and ended the transmission.

"Wow," said Hunk, still staring at the screen. "That's pretty neat."

"It's extremely 'neat'!" Coran said enthusiastically, stretching his mustache nearly a foot to one side and releasing it with a snap. "Having a friendly planet to land on while repairing the castle will make things a lot easier all around!"

He left, already counting off repairs he'd like to make, and Allura followed him, listening closely.  
Pidge pulled out her digital clock. "It's the equivalent of one in the morning, Earth time," she informed them.

Lance rolled off the couch and stood up. "Yeah, I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm ready to hit the hay."

"Yeah, me too," said Keith.

Hunk yawned, and Shiro got up and stretched. "Great job today, guys."

"It wasn't today," said Pidge tiredly. "It was yesterday."

"You were in the cryopod, like, forever," said Lance.

Shiro frowned after him.

Keith walked past, paused, and turned back with a half-apologetic look. "You were in there a pretty long time."

"Okay, then," said Shiro, giving up. "Great job _yesterday,_ guys!"

 **And - that's that! :) I hope you liked the story, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. Favorite part, favorite quote or line . . . That kind of thing. ;)**


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